I know it's only three games into the season, but after watching the Reds play three against Arizona I vastly prefer the Reds talent mix. Cincinnati made some mistakes and the offense never clicked, but the Reds flashed a broad team skill set while AZ mostly subsisted on solo homers. For me, the clincher is the Reds have Coco Cordero to close games whlle the DBacks have the immensely suspect Brandon Lyon (whom I predict will not last long in the closer role).

It's been a long time since we've been able to entertain the notion that the Reds could actually be better than a 90-win club from the previous season, and I'll confess I'm surprised by my conviction on this.

Mind you, the 2007 DBacks were just about the worst 90-win team you'll ever see. Adding Dan Haren was a nice touch, but there's a lot of outs in that lineup, the back of the rotation is shaky and the bullpen is NOT going to repeat its nearly unconscious 2007 performance.

Even so, the Reds have spent seven years being worse than most other problematic opponents. Now they've got a few different ways to win a given game. Whether they can win enough to make this a season to remember remains to be seen. It's possible that the Reds could squander a lot of potential in 2008, allowing lesser clubs (like Arizona) to post better records, but this fan is going to be taking the "there's no good reason the Reds shouldn't win today" attitude more often than not.